-Every day Mr. G was stopped by women who asked him to take their pictures. I don’t know if he looked bored or just simply safe.

One of my sister in laws went to London and she said they never found the red phone booths… we saw them daily and took a ton of pictures of them for her….

One of the coolest things about London in December is seeing the Christmas decorations. This tree was at the V&A Museum…

And just for anyone considering it… I really don’t recommend coming home on a Tuesday night and then proceeding to move on Thursday afternoon. It all works out but you will ask yourself several times if you are crazy!

Day 2 started at St. Paul’s Cathedral, then we walked across the Millennium Bridge and followed to Jubilee Walkway to the London Eye. We got our first (but not last) meal of fish and chips for this trip and then hit the Tate Modern Museum. All I will say is that I will own up to t he fact that I do not appreciate modern art.

Because it makes total sense to take a quick trip to London in the middle of moving, right? So we took off to London the first week of December and it was wonderful. We landed in the morning, took off for our Hotel, and then hit the streets running. Day 1 was the British Museum, Leicester Square, Covent Garden and eating in Piccadilly Circus.

At the beginning of the year I was reading a lot of blogs that made talk about setting goals and picking their word for the year. It was a bit overwhelming in a self-imposed way. I knew I could stand for some goals or resolutions but mine weren’t lofty (clean the garage?). It was bothering me a bit that I didn’t seem to have my act more together. But then I felt the reassurance of God/Spirit that 2013 was going to be a good year. I had to laugh because by then we knew that we two new additions to the family and it was going to be a good year. In March our family welcomed a niece and in Sept a new nephew.

And with birth came the other side, death. In 2013 we had the totally unexpected and too young passing of Uncle Pete in Feb – an uncle only 14 years older than Mr. G and more like an older brother. And then in Sept the passing of Grandmommy, who was so ready to meet Jesus. Death is a part of life, but one I know I won’t fully comprehend while I’m on this earth.

We celebrated this year, too. Our 5 year anniversary (in Hawaii). There was a high school graduation for my BIL. The birth of those sweet babies. Birthdays and ice cream for celebrating and “just because”.

We didn’t get to spend near enough time with the boat this year due to a drought, but we did get some trips in to neighboring lakes and a sibling trip that will live in history as the trip of lost & found items (specifically an anchor that is still lost, and a set of keys and a phone that were lost and then found).

We laughed a lot and we disagreed… a lot.

But the most surprising part of 2013 was where in the in the midst of everyday life, we decided that we would probably move some day and started looking at land and nearby towns… and then ended up moving 3 miles from our current house to our dream neighborhood.

And then we might have just snuck in a quick trip to London.

I am looking forward to 2014. I won’t be worrying about my goals (it would be to unpack!) or having a “word of the year”. I know God is in control and I have no doubt 2014 is going to be just as good of a year. And we are going to continue to celebrate and laugh and (and probably disagree) and make it a priority to count our blessings and treasure the presence of God as our lives are orchestrated in ways we don’t begin to understand.

Day 6 – We drove south to Wailea to see some of the fancy resorts and walk through some of the fancy shops. Then we headed back to our hotel and spend the rest of the day at the beach. Apparently we are beach folks. We ate, we watched for splashes from whales in the distance, and we enjoyed another sunset. Pictures from that day look like the previous days!

Day 7 – Day 7 was what I call our day of boating! During the morning we took a snorkeling cruise and in the evening we went on a sunset dinner cruise. The pictures I took of snorkeling were of lots of blue water around us.

And I had my hands full eating quite a bit on the dinner cruise and took very few pictures. Mr. G took the camera at the end and grabbed some pictures of the sunset.